AI exposure and task detachability: migrant anchoring and work-linked health protection among highly educated foreign-born adults in the United States

BackgroundOccupation-level AI exposure indices describe the potential overlap between occupational work content and AI capabilities rather than individual AI use or employer adoption. However, task organisation and access to work-linked protections may differ across occupational contexts. We examined whether associations between a compound high-AIOE/high-task-detachability occupational profile and upstream insurance and material conditions varied by migrant anchoring among highly educated foreign-born adults in the United States.MethodsWe linked 2017–2024 IPUMS American Community Survey (ACS) data for adults aged 25–64 with a bachelor’s degree or higher to AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) and O*NET 30.3 measures. High AIOE was defined as the top occupational quartile. The focal profile combined high AIOE with high task detachability and was compared with lower-AIOE occupations. Migrant anchoring combined citizenship, US residence duration, English proficiency, family co-residence, and homeownership; scores of 0–2 indicated lower anchoring. The three principal domain-specific outcomes were absence of employer- or union-linked health coverage from any eligible source among employed wage and salary workers, uninsurance, and family income below 200% of the federal poverty threshold. All-adult work-linked Social Reproduction Instability (W-SRI) ≥ 2 was retained as the focal cumulative summary measure. Weighted models were adjusted for demographic, regional, annual, and broad occupational characteristics. Inference used CR2/Satterthwaite covariance, wild cluster bootstrap tests, and leave-one-cluster-out analyses.ResultsThe analysis included 746,995 foreign-born person-year observations, of which 22.47% were classified as having lower anchoring. Among adults with higher anchoring, the focal occupational profile and lower-AIOE occupations showed few differences in the four principal outcomes. Among adults with lower anchoring, the focal occupational profile was associated with a lower prevalence of all four adverse outcomes. The corresponding between-stratum differences were −10.68 percentage points for absence of employer- or union-linked coverage, −6.75 percentage points for uninsurance, −7.90 percentage points for poverty, and −7.55 percentage points for cumulative burden. Magnitudes remained similar after excluding 2020, restricting the sample to 2018–2024, adding state fixed effects, and restricting the sample to currently employed respondents. In the labour force-restricted analysis, the unemployment modification was −0.37 percentage points (95% CI −1.15 to +0.42) and was imprecisely estimated.ConclusionAmong highly educated foreign-born adults with lower anchoring, the compound occupational profile was associated with a lower prevalence of coverage absence, uninsurance, poverty, and cumulative burden than occupations with lower AIOE. The findings describe occupation-level differences in upstream insurance and material conditions rather than causal effects of AI adoption or task detachability.